


Death and His Lover

by dr33g



Category: Persona 3
Genre: Character Death, Fluff, Lots of character death, M/M, and suggest tags even, just aging, not like. violent though, seeing as im a dumbass, uhhh ask to tag
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-04-29
Updated: 2018-04-29
Packaged: 2019-04-29 21:55:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,442
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14482011
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dr33g/pseuds/dr33g
Summary: When Minato realized he was going to die, he felt a sort of calm stretch over him. Death was like sleeping but never waking up, and that seemed… Nice, in a way.Sleeping was one of his favorite activities, after all.And nothing else seemed worth it after Ryoji… Became the thing he had to fight.So he accepted his death and became the Great Seal.And for a while, it was just a nice long nap. Peaceful. Kind. Warm.But then, he woke up.Which was really fucking weird, to say the least.





	Death and His Lover

**Author's Note:**

> this fic is triple self-indulgent but i love ryomina let me live  
> also s/o to the gay persona discord !! they gave me the confidence to post. also they drew my dumb ryomina ideas and i died. minato tying ryoji's scarf around their clasped hands so ryoji cant leave him is. my lifeblood hewwo.  
> anyways thank you for reading ! hope you enjoy !!!

When Minato realized he was going to die, he felt a sort of calm stretch over him. Death was like sleeping but never waking up, and that seemed… Nice, in a way. 

Sleeping was one of his favorite activities, after all.

And nothing else seemed worth it after Ryoji… Became the thing he had to fight.

So he accepted his death and became the Great Seal. 

And for a while, it was just a nice long nap. Peaceful. Kind. Warm.

But then, he  _ woke up _ .

Which was really fucking weird, to say the least. He was sorta supposed to be dead. Minato sat up and looked around. The place where he woke up felt familiar, in a way. It was all white, and he was sitting on a bench that was way too soft to be a real actual bench.

It was quiet, though. No one else was there. And a flicker of hope that Minato didn’t realize he had melted away.

For a moment he considered trying to go back to sleep, but he couldn’t. Somehow he knew that he had to be awake, if only for a while.

And so he sat there and waited. For what could’ve been any stretch of time. Minato just waited.

After a while, something clicked. Almost like a light switch flickering off, but more like a sunset at the end of a day. And Minato felt a presence enter his sanctuary.

He turned to it and saw the only face he actually had been  _ craving _ to see from the moment he awoke, and before that, even.

Mochizuki Ryoji smiled and said, “Hello again. Did you have a nice nap?”

Minato didn’t respond. Instead, he stood up and ran and wrapped his arms around the being in front of him, Ryoji taking only half a moment to reciprocate. 

And he felt so safe and warm and at peace and happy and excited and-

He felt a feeling he could only describe as love.

“You’re safe,” he mumbled into Ryoji’s shoulder. There was no heartbeat there, but that made sense. Afterall, Ryoji was death himself.

“Of course I am. You can’t kill death.” A soft smile, only barely there, graced Minato’s features.

“Fair.” The hug broke and Minato and Ryoji just stared into each other’s eyes.

“I suppose you’d like an explanation?” Minato nodded. Ryoji took Minato’s hand and they went over to the bench, which had now become a table with two chairs. They sat, and Ryoji began to explain.

“Well, right now we are sort of… In the seal. Don’t worry, your sacrifice will hold strong for an eternity or more, but as Death, I figured I could pull a few strings and make a place that you could exist, at least, for now.

“You’ll mostly be ‘sleeping’, also known as being a statue, but during the new moon, Nyx and Erebus are at their farthest apart, so you get a full 24 hours that day to be awake.

“I don’t know what you’ll do during the day, but… I can come at night and keep you company.” A slight redness came to the being known as Death’s cheeks. Minato suddenly became hyper-aware that they were still holding hands. 

Minato began to blush as well, but he squeezed the connection and said, very quietly, “I wouldn’t mind that at all.”

Ryoji smiled at that, and said, “Great.” Ryoji took the hand that hadn’t been holding Minato’s and used it to cup Minato’s jaw.

When they had been alive, there had been this… Pull that the two of them felt to one another. The only thing that had kept them from closing the gap was Aegis, who was the equal and opposite force keeping them apart, keeping them friends and nothing more.

It made sense, now that Minato thought about it. They had been sharing a body for years and were finally separated. And he felt no resentment towards Aegis for trying to pry them apart. She hadn’t known why she was doing it, after all, and Ryoji had ended up being… Dangerous.

“Do you mind if I-” Ryoji began.

“Close the gap?” Minato finished. He shook his head. Ryoji leaned over the table and met Minato’s lips with his own.

The kiss was light and chaste, just meant to represent the two boys finally getting to do it. But it made Minato feel more warm and giddy than he could ever remember feeling. 

When they pulled apart, the table had disappeared and the two were now sitting much closer together on a… Couch? Yes, it was a couch. Minato was too busy feeling lovestruck to think too hard about the fact that the room kept changing.

Minato smiled and crawled into Ryoji’s lap. Now that they could be this close, he was going to make sure they were that close whenever possible. Ryoji quickly made sure to wrap his arms around Minato and hug him just a little bit closer.

Ryoji laughed silently and said, “This is the widest I’ve ever seen you smile.” Minato continued to grin, but he looked down in embarrassment. “You look-” 

“Beautiful?” Ryoji nodded. “You too.” Minato shifted his hands up to grasp Ryoji’s dumb scarf and pulled him in for another kiss. They had both decided was going to be a tad less chaste and met each other with open mouths. Minato was, admittedly, inexperienced, though he realized that the girls around him had probably wanted to make him more experienced, Ryoji seemed to be content with whatever was happening, and Minato was, too.

The made out for a while, and then they just talked about whatever came to mind. It wasn’t exactly a riveting conversation, but it was peaceful, and they were together, and that was all they needed.

At the end of the night, Minato began to feel very tired. Ryoji smiled sadly and said, “It’s time. I’ll see you when you wake up, my sleeping beauty.” Minato nodded and found himself in a bed rather than the couch they had been on for the majority of the night, and he drifted back into Death’s open arms (quite literally). Ryoji pulled the covers over and let the liminal space he had created fade back into the seal. He’d be back in a months time. He brushed his lips against Minato’s sleeping form just as space faded, and went off to do his job as Death.

-

The first few times Minato was awake, it went similarly to the first. Minato would wake up and sit up to find the bed he had been sleeping in would shift to the couch, and then he would wait for twelve or so hours, then Ryoji would arrive and they’d either chat or make out or some combination of the two.

The fifth time, however, something changed.

He had been waiting as per usual when he felt a presence behind him. Ryoji always arrived from the same place, so Minato had begun facing that place out of habit, so when he felt something behind him, he tensed up. He also knew that it was way too early for Ryoji to be here, as it had only been 5 or so hours max since he had awoken.

Minato turned to see none other than Yamagishi Fuuka behind him. 

“M-Minato?” she said. Minato felt tears prick his eyes as he nodded and practically flew over to where Fuuka was standing, wrapping her small, now shaking, form. She had begun to cry. He put his chin on the top of her head and held her, just as they had done when he was alive. “I-I… How are you here? Where is here?”

“This is within the seal, I think. At least, that’s what Ryoji told me.”

“Ryoji? Is he here?”

“Only at night. Apparently, during the new moon, I can exist in this space. How’d you get here?”

“Um, well, I was visiting the place where you…” A tear fell from Fuuka’s eye. “Died, to pay respects, and I just reached out with my heart to the lingering flicker of your presence and now I’m… Here.” Fuuka began to laugh, and tears began flowing out of her eyes at a much faster rate. “I missed you so much.”

“I missed you, too,” Minato mumbled into Fuuka’s head, pressing a soft kiss there. He held his best friend in his arms for what was probably a ridiculous amount of time before they both fell into the table and chairs that had appeared right beneath them. The room changed to whatever Minato required or asked for subconsciously, and he had gotten used to just sitting down and finding some sort of chair there. Fuuka looked a tad unsettled by the fact that she was suddenly sitting at a table, but that emotion flickered in her eyes for only a moment before she went back to talking to Minato.

After a while, she said, “The others would love to see you, too. We all missed you so much.” The thought of suddenly seeing everyone overwhelmed Minato. Fuuka seemed to notice, as she always did, and said, “We can set up a schedule if you’d like? So only a few people at most are in here at a time.” Minato nodded and gave Fuuka an appreciative look. She always knew what he needed.

“Alright, I’ll tell them. You said you’re only awake during the new moon, right?” He nodded. “Then I’ll see you in a months time. I’ll miss you.” 

“I’ll be sleeping in between, so I won’t notice the space, but if I wasn’t sleeping, I’d miss you, too.” Fuuka smiled, and Minato felt the sunset in his bones. The aura of the seal always changed when that happened. Fuuka seemed alarmed as she began to fade, and he said, “Goodbye, I’ll see you then.” And then, he felt the presence he associated with Ryoji behind him as Fuuka disappeared. 

“Hey, you,” Ryoji said. Minato ran to his side, kissing him.

Minato muttered against Ryoji’s lips, saying, “Missed you, love you.”

-

It began following a pattern again after Fuuka came.

First, Junpei and Chidori would arrive, only for a little while, though. Minato was never… That big of a fan of Junpei, but Chidori was always welcome. Their allotted time was an hour, but they often finished talking within 20 minutes of arriving.

Mitsuru had her turn next. She had about 20 minutes, seeing as she usually took the time that Junpei and Chidori left, giving her a full hour most days. 

Yukari would come next, for an hour or so, and they would just talk about what had happened since he last saw her, and she would often push him for details on what it was like to be dating Death himself.

After Yukari came Akihiko, Shinjiro, Ken, and Koromaru. They got two hours due to the sheer volume of the group. They considered splitting it in two sometimes, but in the end, Ken was always adamant that he came with Shinjiro, and Minato knew that Akihiko sure as hell wasn’t leaving Shinjiro’s side. Koromaru couldn’t access the seal by himself on most days, so they all came together. Usually, it was just chatting about their lives, but occasionally Minato could wish up a video game for them to play, with Koromaru acting as referee.

Last, and definitely not least, came Fuuka. She always got the rest of the day, which could be anywhere from 4 hours during the winter to 10 during the summer. It never felt like enough.

When the sun would set, Fuuka would fade, and Ryoji would appear behind them, and they would do what they always did. Enjoy each other’s company.

-

Other people found the seal. Other persona users. Some had to solve a murder mystery, some had to steal hearts. All had to save the world. Minato guided them through the power of the wild card, if they had it, and gave them guidance on how to use personas effectively, anything he could. They never stayed long, though.

-

It was hard for Minato, after a while. His friends were aging so fast and he felt them slip through his fingers.

Just under two weeks for him, and they grew a year older. It was frightening to watch so much time pass by so quickly. One day, Fuuka would be asking if she’d look good with longer hair, then a week later and she’d show up with a long braid down her back.

Koromaru was the first to die, being a dog. Minato cried for an hour of the time allotted for Ken, Shinjiro, and Akihiko when they arrived for the first time without him. No one seemed to mind.

Shinjiro died next. The persona repressors had done a number on his system, and they had all known he wasn’t going to live as long as the rest of them. Akihiko never took off their wedding ring, even years after.

Watching all of his friends age into old people while he stayed 16 was absolutely horrifying and heartbreaking.

One day, Minato asked, “Does it hurt to have to take the souls of people you knew? Of our friends?” Ryoji smiled mournfully.

“Yes, but everyone dies. You’re dead right now, even. And one day, the seal will break, and you won’t be able to exist anymore. But that’s an eternity away. I just have to say goodbye to them sooner.” Minato nodded and pressed infinitesimally closer to Ryoji. He was trying to comfort him, and it worked.

When Fuuka died, Minato became numb for a while. He cried a lot at first, but then he became somewhat cold. The remainder of his friends helped him warm up again, but he was never the same. 

-

The day that no one came broke Minato’s heart. Ken had been the last to die, but he had always made an effort to come, even in his old age, so the day that Ken didn’t show up, Minato cried into Ryoji’s chest for days afterward.

Luckily, until the end of eternity, he would have his lover, so he’d never be alone for longer than half a day.

But during the loneliness, he always cried. He missed them all so much.

He should’ve known, he thought. Everyone dies. Hell, he was dating Death himself.  _ Memento mori _ , right?

It doesn’t mean it didn’t ache.

And when eternity passed, and it was time for Erebus and Nyx to ravage the world, the seal broke, and Minato truly died.

Ryoji performed his duties, but after everything had died, Death was no more, too.

And that was the end of the universe.

**Author's Note:**

> kudos and comments are always appreciated !!! thank you for reading !


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